In and out of narrow streets, up and down quaint steps, we reached at last the Ivory Gate, the Etruscan Porta Eburnea,—that very quaintly-placed old gate, from which a steep road goes down into the country.
We had here an extended view of the wall, curving grandly forward to a projecting point, and completely obscuring all view of La Cupa; the point itself crowned by a most picturesque round tower, standing out vividly from its background of purple hills.
PORTA EBURNEA
The road from Porta Eburnea looked attractive. On this special day it was thronged with peasants going home from market. Some of the women stopped outside the gate; taking off their boots, they slung them over their shoulders, or put them in their baskets; then, with brown bare feet and legs, they went down the steep dusty road with rapid, swinging steps. Most of these bare-footed women wore handsome coral necklaces; and yet shopkeepers asked from eighty to three hundred francs for a string of these beads. Just outside the gate a man and several boys were playing some game with walnuts.
OUTSIDE PERUGIA.
Coming home one evening from the twisting way behind the cathedral, we reached a lofty arched opening with "Via Appia" printed on one side. The arch itself has a house above it; a second arch within, with grey projecting imposts, shows a broad steep descent,—a long flight of shallow brick steps, so undecided as to the course they shall take that they curve first one way and then another, before they reach the bottom of the descent.